Busy is good. Slow is bad.

Week 4.

Money Made: $380.05

Money Spent: $167.73 (This week: Ream of Paper, Little notebooks)

Current Balance: $212.32

I’ve decided that this blog needs to be wittier. I don’t know what to do. I can be witty, see here. But perhaps because I look at this blog like a diary, jotting down notes and keeping track of what is going on I come off as boring and unfunny. I cannot keep that up if I want you to come back, right?

I guess $212.32 isn’t a bad total. But I need more money. Coming into week four I feel like I haven’t made much progress but, truth be told, I’ve been busy as hell this week.

On Wednesday morning I woke up at the unGodly hour of 6:15. What the hell, am I a farmer? I drove all the way to Pikesville for a BNI meeting at Fuddruckers at 7:30. When I got there no one was there except for a Mexican dude cleaning. The doors were locked and I couldn’t figure out what to do. But then I remembered there was another meeting about a mile down the road, so back in the Element and off I go! (Zoom, Zoom)The Suburban House is a Pikesville staple. It’s a Jewish deli, in the fact that Jewish folks own the place, as they own nearly everything else in Pikesville, one of the largest Jewish neighborhoods in the country. The room was mostly empty but an old friend of mine from another group, Stephen Hecht was there, and was especially glad to see me. He remembered my sense of humor (which doesn’t translate onto this blog at all). And a guy who I turned down for Merchant Services was there as well. Breakfast was coffee and bagels. I had to forage for my own spoon to stir my coffee. I got one lead out of the event which I have yet to follow up on.

Thursday Morning was even better. We met at the Radisson in Cross Keys. Nice place. And there’s a business attorney there, Gregory Weiner, from Tydings and Rosenberg, and he was very helpful. Also, a CPA meets there and he was eager to help me too. I am going back to this group next week to see if anything can pan out here, though I’ll still be looking at other groups.

In other adventures, I went to Northwest Termite & Pest to try and sign a pest control company. The owner wasn’t in but I talked to the receptionist, Helen, for a good while. She was funny and had that mid-life cynical view on the world.  She’d talk on end about how the employees were probably at the bar and not working, or trying to scam the owner out of vacation days. I used to work in pest control and know all about it. You can’t follow the technicians all day long, you just gotta hope they do their job.

On Wednesday, I called a power washing company to try to set up sub-contracting work. They’d said we’d meet sometime early next week. I need to contact more people in case some of these fall through. And I need to do it this week. And it’s Friday. Life is hard.

That night I went to a meeting at the Enoch Pratt Free library about making a business plan. I was in a room with about ten other folks, mostly black (it is Baltimore, after all), while two ladies from Provident Bank discussed making a business plan. I noticed that the other businesses seemed implausible to me. A restaurant (high failure rate), two seperate movie makers, an electrician who seemed confused. I’m not knocking these people or what they want to do, but starting a business is tough and starting one that makes money seems unlikely. I’d never start a restaurant. I costs tons to start and if it fails you lose gobs and gobs of money. My business is set up to use little up front capital and be nearly entirely self sufficient from the get go.

The sub-contracting limits risk. I need no start up capital to sign on a power-washer or pest controller, besides for the paperwork. The products are high margin, fast movers. The risk I take in inventory should be offset by the small risk services we provide. If I take a loan for start up inventory, which I very well may have to do, I should be able to pay it off nearly immediately and push the cash into future inventory.

Speaking of inventory, I called Gojo, who was more than happy to sell me their line of cleaning products and chemicals. The catch? I had to buy $20,000 worth. So I hooked up with a guy named Vince who is a sub-distributor and he is going to sell to me with no minimums. (For those of you wondering a “minimum” in distribution is, it’s the lowest amount of a purchase you need to buy for the vendor to actually sell to you.) I’m meeting with him on Monday.

I also contacted Halco Lighting, Westinghouse Lighting, and Damar Lighting. I filled out credit apps for all three. Damar is the only one who has gotten back to me and told me they didn’t think I was “real business” because I didn’t have a location. Hopefully Westinghouse or Halco pull through.

Last time I blogged I mentioned my need for a printer. My mother-in-law called me and told me she had one, new, still in the box. It’s a copier, printer, scanner combo. A nice pick-up and it came in handy for all those credit apps.

I’m outta here, I need to sign a pest control company today.

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